Always_Ask_Questions said – “One can say that adequate response was early developed by R Hirsh (and attempted before by Mendelssohn)”
What on Earth are you talking about putting Rav Hirsch zt”l in the same sentence as Mendelssohn ימח שמו וזכרו?! Mendelssohn (‘successfully’) attempted to create the PROBLEM, Rav Hirsch zt”l created one of the SOLUTIONS. Go learn history, together with the guy who wrote here that Rav Kook z”l was head of הסדר, something founded 30 years after his passing… Lakewood in the 40s-50s was also nothing like how you describe it, both in its goals and its modus operandi. What happened to Lakewood decades later is a different subject.
“At some point, we should get out of survival mode and ask the question – is Hashem looking for a nation that reads old books or a nation that reacts to the world that He sent us to.”
Well, those ‘old books’ as you call them (I do not want to descend to ad hominem insults, but using such an expression to refer to Toras Hashem is beyond the pale for anyone remotely claiming to be a believing Goy, let alone a believing Jew.) were in fact given to us by Hashem Himself, something we will be celebrating three weeks from now… The ‘world Hashem sent us to’ is a test how loyal we will be to doing Hashem’s Will, as described in those ‘old books’ and explained and applied by the Chachomim of each generation, (not the baalei batim from the peanut gallery.) This isn’t a Chiddush of mine, or of anyone else, this is spelled out already in Chumash and Navi many times. כי מנסה ה׳ אלקיכם אתכם, ואלה הגוים אשר השאיר ה׳ לנסות בהם את ישראל, etc. The only thing ‘new’ is the flavor-of-the-month of the Nisayon.
Speaking of changing ניסיונות and engaging modernity, let me ask you a question. Is Modern Orthodoxy really ‘modern’ anymore? In order to be even minimally ‘Orthodox’ one needs to acknowledge that the only Kosher ‘relationship’ is marriage between a man and a woman. One must also acknowledge that there is a clear definition of what the terms ‘man’ and ‘woman’ mean… Holding these positions is already enough to brand you a ‘far right homophobic transphobic extremist’, far from being ‘modern’ or ‘with it’. So can ‘Modern Orthodoxy’ continue to pretend not to be an oxymoron? Just ask whoever is in charge of YU… Zionism is a much more convenient issue for you to debate, because the debate is more historical and less relevant…